Seventy-Seven Square Miles
by julia-sets
Summary: All Patience wanted was a normal summer visit to her future college. After the invasion of Sioux Falls she doesn't think she has it in her to be a hunter. But then she has a vision. So now between checking out dorms and registering for classes, she and Alex are looking for a mysterious girl, hoping to stave off a violent murder. At least Sam Winchester is available to help.


I wrote this for the Wayward Sisters Big Bang. You can find a version with art at AO3 and LiveJounral (check my profile). I think that Patience and Alex have a lot of potential, but the show is terrible at writing them. For one thing, it's a shame that with all the many things they have in common with Sam, they haven't really interacted with him at all. This fic was my attempt at fixing that.

* * *

 _Alex_

"No, no, no, that's a one-way!"

Alex ground her teeth together as she flicked off the car's blinker and sped back up to match the rest of the traffic. "Then where do I turn?"

"The next one."

"That's not a one-way?"

"No, it is."

"What?"

"It's a one-way the other way."

In through her nose, out through her mouth. Just breathe. She double checked the bike lane before moving into the turning lane, stopping completely at the corner to wait for a couple pedestrians. There were way more people out and walking around than Alex was used to while driving and it was putting her on edge. If she saw one more orange construction barrel she was going to scream.

"Here, this parking garage," Patience said, pointing across Alex's chest. "I think that's where they said we can park."

"At this point I don't even care," Alex said. "If we're wrong we can just walk."

It was only once the car was safely stowed in a parking space that she was finally able to take a breath.

"You did great?" Patience offered.

Alex tried to smile back, but it was probably more of a grimace. "This city is stupid. Its roads are stupid. Remind me why we're here?"

"You're here because Jody couldn't get away from work," Patience replied as she got out of the car.

Alex did the same and cringed as the wall of summer heat hit her. She immediately missed the air-conditioned car interior. "So then remind me why you're going here?"

"It's a good school," Patience replied. "And it's still kind of close to Sioux Falls. So I can visit or help with hunts if you guys need it."

"It's a seven hour drive."

Patience shot her a quick grin as they headed down the concrete stairs. "Like I said, close! Plus, they were offering the biggest scholarship."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Good luck keeping a car on this campus. I almost mowed down about fifty people."

They stepped out onto a busy pedestrian mall. Madison wasn't exactly a bustling metropolis, but she supposed it beat Sioux Falls.

"So, what's first on the schedule?" Alex asked, shoving her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

Patience checked her itinerary—which she had both typed up and printed out, the nerd—and turned back with a shrug. "Orientation and registering for classes doesn't start until tomorrow. I figured I'd just walk around, get used to the city. I have a list of stuff to see?"

"So we're going to be tourists?" Alex asked.

Her tone clued Patience in on how she felt about that plan, enough to make her look a little embarrassed, but she didn't let it sway her. "What, you're so allergic to fun that you'd rather just be chaperoning me to dumb college stuff?"

Well, sure, when she put it like that it didn't sound much better. It was one of the things she liked about Patience, that she didn't usually take anyone's shit. She had a weird, nerdy self-confidence thing going on that Alex admired. Even Claire had come to respect her a bit for it. Still, Alex rolled her eyes. No reason to give her a big head. "Fine, what's first on your list?"

"This way."

* * *

The first thing on Patience's list ended up being the state capitol building. Which, sure, was nice as far as buildings went. It looked a lot like the U.S. Capitol, tall and white and domed. They gave free tours on the hour and Patience managed to convince her to tag along and listen to how it was constructed from 43 types of stone from six countries and eight states. Patience ate up all the trivia, leaning forward in her seat like she was honestly interested in the story of a previous capitol building getting burned down a hundred years ago. Nerd.

After the tour they climbed up to the observation deck, which ran in a ring around the dome. The capitol was in the center of Madison and there weren't any tall buildings competing with it, so they had a great view of the entire city. The downtown was on a narrow strip of land wedged in between two lakes. Given that it was summer, the lakes were dotted with motorboats and people kayaking or paddleboarding. The wind was enough that Alex had to grab her hair to keep it from flying in her eyes, but the breeze felt good as it cut through the sticky summer air.

"Let's take a picture," Patience said.

Alex tried to glare, but months of living together seemed to have made Patience immune to her well-practiced grumpiness. They grabbed a couple selfies with the lake as a backdrop, then ran around the observation deck to grab a few more with the other lake.

"I'm gonna send these to Jody," Patience said, tapping away at her phone as they navigated the steps back down to ground level.

"Great," Alex drawled. "Evidence that we're not boozing it up."

"It is known as a party school."

"See, the way you said that? That's how Jody knows that you're not going to drink anyway," Alex teased. "Besides, it's college, they're all party schools. Or Hollywood has lied to me."

When Patience suggested they visit the museum Alex finally put her foot down. She'd had enough history for the day. "Isn't there anything actually fun to do in this town?"

Patience glanced down her list of activities and grimaced.

"That bad?"

"Uhh, let's walk down this way," Patience suggested. They were back on the pedestrian mall, headed towards the parking garage. The street was lined with shops and restaurants. They wove in and out of kitschy boutiques, laughing at punny art prints.

"We should pick up something for Jody," Patience suggested.

"Yeah? You think Jody needs a cheese-themed throw pillow?"

"I can't brie-lieve you even asked," Patience said in a perfect deadpan.

Alex burst into laughter, there was no containing it.

"You're such a dork," she said as she finally stopped.

"That wasn't a gouda joke?"

"Oh, you need to stop."

Patience's wild grin tempered into something more reasonable. "But seriously, I've been staying with Jody for months. _And_ she's covering this whole trip. She's done a lot for me."

"Yeah," Alex said without elaboration. No matter what Jody had done for Patience, she'd done a thousand times more for Alex. Alex tried to help out around the house and she had a job now, but she still felt like a mooch.

Eventually they made their way down the whole street. Patience ended up getting Jody a t-shirt in the school colors, red and white. She lingered at the shirts that said 'Wisconsin mom' and 'Wisconsin dad'. To lighten the mood Alex tried to convince her to get the 'Wisconsin grandmother' instead. In the end they got one with just 'Wisconsin' in that stereotypical block capital college font.

"Hey, I think we're by the Terrace," Patience said as they left the store.

"That better not be another museum."

Patience shoulder checked her as she consulted the map on her phone. "No, it's supposed to be a nice place to, you know, hang out. It's on the lake."

"Sounds great. Lead the way."

* * *

 _Patience_

The Memorial Union Terrace was only a few blocks away. It was a stone patio wedged between the vaguely Italianate student union building and one of the city's lakes—Patience couldn't remember the name. Even in the middle of a weekday it was packed with people. There were stands for food and beer and ice cream and people sat around on brightly colored metal chairs enjoying the breeze off the lake as they watched people sail or windsurf.

They each got an ice cream cone and claimed one of the picnic tables right next to the lake. There was music playing over speakers closer to the building, but down here the water lapped softly at the rocky shoreline.

"So you're just gonna go to college?"

"Just?" Patience echoed, a little touchily. She'd already put up with enough scathing remarks from Claire.

"You know what I mean."

"Is that so weird?" Patience asked. "Going to college? Not wanting to be a hunter? You're going to nursing school."

"Well, yeah, but it's not college like this. I'm still living with Jody. But you left your home to hunt."

"No, I left because I had a vision and my dad couldn't accept that," Patience said. She didn't mention that her dad had been texting her. Not anything crazy, just checking in, asking how she was doing. She'd been texting back a little, but she still wasn't ready to go home. "I wanted to help. But I'm not cut out to be a hunter, you know? I'm not like Claire. I'm not even like you."

"I'm not a hunter," Alex said.

"Yeah, but the way you cut into that… that thing? From the other world? You're tough. I just don't know if I can be that." Patience didn't know what she wanted to study, but after watching Alex handle the monster she was pretty sure it wasn't anything in the medical field.

"You don't want to be a full time psychic?" Alex asked.

The question was more rhetorical than anything, but Patience couldn't help but give it a serious answer. "I considered it. My grandmother was."

She expected a joke, but instead Alex's voice got soft. "Were you guys close?"

Patience nodded. "We used to live near her, so I spent whole summers at her house. I would hide in this cabinet while she had customers and listen to their problems. She'd always tell me after which ones she was honest with and which ones she told a nice story."

"She sounds nice."

"Yeah," Patience said. "And then when my mom died my dad told me that she was just a liar, that she was never psychic. I never saw her again after the funeral. I think it's kind of finally hitting me that I'm not going to see her again."

"My grandma died too," Alex said abruptly. It managed to shake Patience out of the funk she'd been talking herself into.

"Yeah?"

"I lived with her," Alex continued. "I don't even remember my mom, just my grandma. She died before… I hadn't seen her in a long time."

"I'm sorry," Patience said, completely inadequately. It was all she had.

"You really think you can get out of hunting?"

"Maybe it doesn't have to be all or nothing, right? Jody and Donna don't do it full time," Patience said. "I could help you guys on weekends. But I want a life, too."

"Yeah, I get that," Alex said, and Patience figured she did. Alex wasn't really a hunter either, despite serving as a medical examiner for freaky monsters from another dimension. She worked as a CNA at Sioux Falls General Hospital at night and took classes towards becoming a nurse during the day. She didn't have much of a life beyond that, though. Some of the things Alex said hinted at an ex-boyfriend and that it had ended poorly, so Patience hadn't pried. What Patience had just learned about her grandmother was more than she'd learned in months of living with her. She thought about asking more right now. She could, probably. The time seemed right.

Instead she consulted her print-outs. It was dinnertime and the ice cream hadn't exactly sated her appetite. She'd found plenty of recommendations for places to eat. They could make their way back to the car, eat closer to the capitol square.

Something prickled along the back of her neck and she looked up to find a girl staring at her.

The girl had long, red hair and freckles stood out on her pale skin. She looked about the same age, maybe another incoming freshman. She was standing on one of the piers, maybe twenty feet away, and staring right at Patience.

Patience's first thought was annoyance. It hadn't escaped her notice that while Madison was moderately more diverse than Sioux Falls, it was still way whiter than what she was used to growing up in Atlanta. Patience stood out.

But then the girl gave her a smile and the annoyance melted away. She glanced back down at her papers, but when the feeling didn't go away she looked back up. The girl was still there, standing, staring. Patience felt her face heat up and she shifted in her seat. Was she trying to flirt or something?

Patience turned towards Alex, but Alex wasn't there. Nobody was there. She looked around wildly. She was standing, with no memory of having gotten up. There were no brightly colored metal chairs, no buildings. Trees surrounded her, but there was a fire pit in a nearby clearing with a couple wooden benches. The light had dimmed. And the girl was there, hair glinting in the setting sun, standing on the edge of the shore, which was all dirt and plants and roots and leaf litter.

"What…" Patience started to ask, but was interrupted as the girl was thrown forward as if something hit her in the back.

There was someone there, someone else, but in the deep shadows of the trees Patience couldn't make out their face. The girl was on her hands and knees in the brush and then something struck her again, snapped her head to the side and opened up a jagged cut that began pouring blood, darker red against her bright red hair.

Patience stood frozen in place, she couldn't move, couldn't do anything but watch as the girl collapsed and lay still.

Hands fell onto her shoulder and she jerked and then she was back, the sun high and bright and shining off the lake into her eyes.

"Hey," someone was saying in her ear and Patience turned to find Alex still holding onto her shoulders, concern etched onto her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Patience replied absently. She looked back out at the pier, but the girl wasn't there.

"You sure? Because you just stood up and looked like a zombie."

"I think I had a vision," Patience said. "Did you see where that girl went?"

"What girl?" Alex asked, following her gaze.

"She was standing on the pier. White girl, my age. Long, red hair."

Alex shook her head. "I didn't see anyone, but I wasn't exactly looking. Too busy freaking out over your weird ass."

Patience was already searching the Terrace, which had somehow managed to fill up even more with people, hoping to catch a glimpse of red hair. She had to say something, had to warn the girl. She shrugged off Alex's hands and strode through the crowd, still searching every face she could for the girl she'd just seen. The vision hadn't taken long, so Patience figured the girl couldn't have gotten that far.

She 'excuse me'-ed her way through a line of people waiting for beer and climbed low steps up to the top of the Terrace. Looking out over the crowd she could see several people with red hair, but none that looked like the girl from her vision.

A hand closed around her arm and she started, but it was only Alex again.

"Hey, you gotta chill, okay?"

"I have to find her," Patience said. "I saw her die. I have to stop it."

"Wait, hold on," Alex said, shaking the arm in her grasp. "We will, okay? We will. But you need to calm down and tell me what you saw."

Patience took a deep breath and finally looked away from the crowd of people. Alex looked worried. It was weird seeing such raw emotion on the face of a girl who wore aloof-ness like a flak jacket.

"Okay," Patience agreed with a nod. They moved into the Union building and found a seat in a quiet, dark corner.

"Tell me about the vision."

So Patience did. She went through seeing the girl on the pier before describing her vision. The woods, the shore, the blood.

"So it didn't happen here."

Patience shook her head.

"That's good, that gives us time. Did you get any sense for when it took place?"

Patience closed her eyes. "It was… sunset. I think. I couldn't see the sun, but the light was kind of like that. I guess it could've been sunrise?"

"Let's assume sunset. That gives us a couple hours."

Patience glanced back outside. "I don't think it was tonight. The sky was clear in the vision." Outside clouds had rolled in, some of them dark and hinting at a very Midwestern summer storm.

"Awesome, that gives us more time," Alex said. "We should call Jody."

Patience nodded even as part of her rebelled. It made sense to call Jody, but she didn't want to. Because the second she did, then she had to acknowledge that this was a hunt. Maybe not a normal one—she didn't think that the attacker in her vision had been a werewolf or monster, other than the normal human kind—but a hunt nonetheless.

Alex already had her phone out and dialed, so Patience let herself gaze out the windows over the people still enjoying the last of the nice day on the Terrace. She let her mind wander back to the vision as she absently searched the oblivious crowd for the red-haired girl.

"Okay," Alex said. Patience turned just in time to see her shoving her phone into her back pocket. "Jody's gonna see if Donna can come down from Minnesota. We'll start the search tomorrow."

"I've got registration tomorrow," Patience pointed out.

"It'll be fine, Donna and I can handle it." Patience still wasn't sure about that and some of the hesitation must've shown on her face because Alex was suddenly standing and pulling her up. "Come on, let's get back to the car before that rain hits. We can go check into the hotel."

* * *

 _Alex_

The hotel was nice, a chain just outside of downtown. Two queens, a mini-fridge, flat screen TV.

Alex opted to take a shower. The combination of driving all day and walking around in the sticky summer air had left a thin layer of gross on her. When she stepped back into the room, wrapped in a towel, she found Patience sitting against the headboard on one of the beds, flipping aimlessly through the channels.

"You look like crap," Alex said.

"Thanks," Patience replied in a tone that almost could've been sarcasm if she'd put just a little more effort in.

Alex turned to her suitcase and reached for some clothes for sleeping in, but changed her mind. She glanced back at Patience's dead-eyed stare.

"Okay, put on something less… dorky."

That pulled Patience's attention away from the television. "Why?"

"We're going out."

"I'm not really in the mood."

"Does it look like I care?" Alex asked, picking out a nicer shirt and her better jeans.

"I don't want to go out."

"I'm sure you don't," Alex said. "But I'm not wasting my chance to have fun in a city where my foster mom isn't the Sheriff."

That finally got a smile. "You got a plan?"

Alex smirked. "You have your list, I have mine."

* * *

The bar was on the other side of town, but it wasn't like 'other side' was all that far in a city this size. Alex wedged the car into a parking spot on the street a few blocks down.

"Okay, now, the trick when using a fake ID—"

"Oh, shut up," Patience interrupted. "I've used a fake ID before."

"You? Really?"

Patience gave her a look and got out of the car.

Even though it was still pretty early in the evening there was already a line to get into the bar. The building itself looked like a strip mall, but the plate glass windows flashed with strobing lights that reflected off the still-wet street from the storm that had just passed through. The people in line were an eclectic bunch. Alex tapped her boots as they stood in line, watching Patience out of the corner of her eye. They inched through the line to the bouncer, who barely even glanced at their IDs before stamping their hands and waving them through.

The front room was the bar, with the dance floor further back. The bar itself was a massive, rectangular thing, accessible from all sides, the entire surface lit by flashing multicolored lights. Alex flagged down one of the bartenders. "Rum and coke."

The bartender turned to Patience. "Uh, what's on tap?" After listening to the options, she picked a beer with the hilarious name of 'Spotted Cow'. People in Wisconsin were weird.

"You like beer?" Alex asked as the bartender slid their drinks over. She paid with cash, wary of Jody somehow getting ahold of her credit card statement. Alex was going to be 21 in a couple of months, but Patience was still 18 and she didn't think Jody would appreciate this little bout of rebellion.

Patience nodded and took a drink. She made a little face at the taste, but didn't seem to hate it. "Beer's okay. Figure I better get used to it, right?" She set the drink down and leaned in. "Alex. This is a gay bar, right?"

"Well it's not like this city has a lot of options when it comes to dance clubs," Alex said, immediately defensive. "Why, you got a problem with it?" She tried to keep her voice light.

"What? No, of course not. Just… you had a boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Okay."

"Okay? That's it?"

Patience shrugged. "I don't care."

Alex felt a smile creep onto her face and turned away. Wouldn't be any good to lose her reputation as the crotchety one. "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah."

Patience shrugged again. "I don't know, it's never been that important to me."

"Fair enough," Alex said, taking another sip of her drink, suppressing the urge to scrunch her face up. It was strong. She glanced over and couldn't believe that Patience was just casually drinking a beer. Maybe she wasn't such a geek after all. "I wasn't lying, though. There really aren't many places to go and dance in this city. You probably should've thought of that before applying here."

"Yeah, that was really high on my priority list."

"Should've been," Alex said, shooting her a grin. She downed more of her drink. "C'mon, let's check this place out."

The dance floor wasn't crowded yet, a couple of circles of friends and a few other stragglers. Alex pulled Patience along and they found an open spot, their dancing only hindered by their efforts not to spill their drinks.

The songs all top 40 and pop, not Alex's usual preference, but they had good beats and a live DJ who blended one song into another seamlessly. They floated into the groups of friends, singing along with every obnoxious song they recognized. Alex left before her drink was even finished to get refills and found that the bar area had added buff, scantily clad male dancers on small wooden platforms, which she eyed appreciatively. She really should've reconsidered this college thing.

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out from her back pocket. The number was unknown and she ducked towards the quieter front of the bar to take it.

"Hello?"

"Alex?" She had to strain to hear the voice, but it was definitely familiar.

"Yeah. Who is this?"

"It's Sam Winchester. Jody sent me to help you guys with your hunt."

Aw, shit.

She maneuvered past the bouncer and the line and stepped out into the cooling night air. "Hey, Sam. I thought she was gonna call Donna."

"Donna had a thing, but I was in Chicago. I'm just getting into town. I know it's getting late, but I thought you guys might be up."

"Uh, yeah, yeah, we are," Alex stammered.

"Hey, it's okay, it sounds like quite the party. I'm just going to crash at the hotel and we can pick it up in the morning. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Alex said with a relieved sigh. "Thanks, Sam."

"No problem."

She hung up and, flashing the stamp on her hand, re-entered the club.

A couple hours and more than a couple drinks later found them still dancing, having made a few friends. The dance floor was much more packed, but way more friendly than the only other club Alex had been to, a place Henry had snuck them into. But that made sense; Henry sucked. Everyone at this bar was better than Henry.

The girl Alex was dancing with had given her name, but it was lost to the pounding music. She was cute, short brown hair. Alex liked the way she scrunched up her nose every time a new song came on as she spent a couple seconds trying to place it.

"Hey."

Alex turned to find a tall guy with hair dyed bright red. "Yeah?"

"Is your friend okay?"

Alex looked. Patience wasn't in the dance circle anymore. She glanced around, but didn't see the psychic anywhere.

"I think she went to the bathroom," the guy said.

Alex nodded and excused herself to head deeper into the building. The bathrooms were huge and the music was piped in through speaker in the ceiling, but the moment she entered she could still hear the unmistakable sound of retching.

"Patience? That you?" The only response was a groan, but it sounded familiar. Alex leaned down to look under the stalls and found herself tipping over onto her hands. At least the floor was pretty clean. "Whoops." She giggled.

Patience was kneeling next to a toilet, Alex could see her boots. "Hey," she said, pounding on the door. "Let me in."

There was a rattle—the lock—and then the stall door swung open. Alex stepped in and closed it behind her. "You okay?"

Patience shook her head before pitching forward and throwing up brightly colored liquid into the toilet. She'd switched to mixed drinks a little while back.

"Yeah, that's not great. We should go."

"Alex, you're drunk."

"What? No, I'm not."

Patience leveled a glare at her.

"Well. Maybe."

"Can you call a Lyft?"

Alex nodded, leaning on the stall door as she opened the app on her phone. "Aww, crap, it's like super surge pricing." She frowned, before a better idea occurred to her. "I'm gonna call Sam."

"What?"

"Sam. He's in town, Jody sent him."

"Sam as in Sam Winchester? I thought she was sending Donna."

"Nope, Sam. I'm gonna call Sam."

"Alex, don't."

"Too late!" Alex crowed, phone already dialing.

Patience just groaned.

Sam picked up pretty quick for an old guy who was probably asleep. "Yeah?"

"Sam."

"Alex? You okay?"

Alex gathered her wits together. She was going to sound sober. "I'm good, Sam. I'm good. Real good. But Patience is not. Not doing so good."

"Are you… where are you guys?" Sam asked.

"We are at the bar, Sam," Alex enunciated carefully. She was rocking this.

There was a chuckle from the other end of the line. "Yeah, I could've guessed that one. This bar have a name?"

Alex gave it.

"Okay, I'm only about ten minutes away. You guys going to be alright until I get there?"

"We will be okay," Alex swore solemnly before hanging up. She looked down at Patience. "We going to be okay?"

Patience's only response was another round of gagging.

"Stellar."

A couple minutes later Patience seemed to have finished emptying her stomach and Alex realized that if Sam showed up she wouldn't have a chance to say goodbye to the girl she was dancing with. But she couldn't leave Patience. Fortunately, the nausea seemed to have abated a bit.

"Okay, we gotta go."

"What?" Patience asked.

"Yeah, come on, get up."

"Why?"

"It's the girl's bathroom," Alex pointed out, perfectly rationally. "Sam can't come in here."

That seemed to do the trick, because Patience rose with a groan, even though Alex didn't think the bar would be so uptight on policing the bathrooms. They leaned on each other as they made their way back into the dark of the dance floor. Alex spotted the girl with the short hair, who looked up and gave a wave. Alex moved forward, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

She looked over to find a broad chest under a black V-neck t-shirt. And then looked up to find Sam Winchester.

"Sam!" Alex chirped.

"Hi, Alex," he said, laughing a bit. "Hey, Patience, you doing okay?"

Patience nodded. She didn't seem nauseous anymore, but she was leaning heavily on Alex's shoulder.

"Alright, let's get you two back to the hotel."

Sam turned aside and it was like Moses parting the red sea. He was a head taller than most of the people there and they all moved out of his way. Alex caught plenty of appreciative looks from both genders, but Sam himself seemed oblivious. Honestly, Alex hadn't ever seen Sam in so few layers. He had a surprisingly great body, broad shoulders and a trim waist. Why did he usually dress like a lumberjack?

Although, to be fair, the lumberjack look would probably clean up here. Especially with the beard he was sporting at the moment.

The bouncer stopped them for a second and Sam exchanged a couple quiet words with him. Alex tried to smile like she wasn't hammered. Judging by the bouncer's laugh it wasn't entirely successful, but at least he seemed reassured that they weren't being kidnapped.

The cool night air hit as they left the building and she felt herself sober up a bit.

Sam took the lead. "I'm parked a few blocks this way."

Alex was just thinking that she really hoped Patience didn't throw up in Sam's big classic car when he fished out a set of keys and hit a button on a key fob. A modern sedan blinked its lights in return.

"Where's your car?"

"Back at the Bunker," Sam replied absently. Maybe. Or avoidingly. Was that a word?

Alex helped Patience into the back before climbing into shotgun. The car wasn't new, but it wasn't the antique that the Winchesters normally drove. Sam waited until she fumbled the seatbelt on before putting the car into drive.

"Are you even old enough to drink?" he asked, but not meanly.

"Claire makes awesome fake IDs," Alex admitted.

"Not exactly what I was hoping she'd use those skills for," Sam grumbled and something dinged in the back of Alex's head. Claire said that Sam taught her how. Now Sam seemed upset. Damn.

"You're not gonna tell Jody, are you?" Alex asked. Because it occurred to her then that maybe calling a Lyft would've been the subtler option.

But Sam just smiled. "About the drinking? No, I think by tomorrow morning you'll have learned your lesson. I'm glad you didn't try to drive."

There was a silence, broken up by the soft click-click of the turn signal as Sam headed back to the hotel.

"What about the other thing?" Alex asked quietly.

Sam glanced over at her, but only briefly. He was a responsible driver. "Nothing for me to tell."

"You know that was…"

"Yeah."

"That doesn't weird you out?"

"No, it doesn't 'weird me out'," Sam said. "It wasn't that different from the gay bars at Stanford."

"You went to Stanford?" Patience broke in.

" _That's_ your question?" Alex asked, twisting around in her seat. "Really?"

"You feeling okay back there, Patience?" Sam asked.

The psychic gave them a thumbs up and shaky grin from where she was slumped against the door of the car.

"Good, because we're here."

And somehow they were.

Things went a bit wonky then as the booze caught up with her. She remembered Sam helping her get Patience to their room. And then it all went black.

* * *

 _Patience_

Patience woke abruptly.

She was in a bed. In a hotel? Oh, god, how had she gotten here?

She rolled over, away from the sunlight painfully streaming in through the window, and caught a glimpse of clothes strewn across the floor. Her clothes, from the bar. She remembered the bar, the dancing, being in Madison for college. But her clothes were on the floor.

Shit, was she naked?

She pulled up the covers and was relieved to find out that she'd somehow changed into the t-shirt and athletic shorts she usually slept in. She had to commend her own drunk self for her foresight.

Alex was half-snoring in the bed closer to the door.

She glanced at her phone on the night stand—which drunk-Patience had been kind enough to plug in—and saw that it was still early. Registration started just before noon. Relieved, she sunk back down onto the comfortable bed.

 _Knock knock._

Patience groaned as she stood up, patting her hair into place. A glance through the peephole revealed a man Patience vaguely recognized as Sam Winchester. Flashes of memory came back to her from the night before. Sam had been there. Why was Sam there? Why was he here?

"Alex," she hissed, retreating back into the room to stand at the foot of Alex's bed.

 _Knock knock._

"Alex!"

The other girl's eyes snapped open and she jerked upright in bed. "What? What's happening?"

"Why is Sam Winchester here?" Patience whispered.

"Sam's here?" Alex asked dumbly.

"He's outside."

Alex scrubbed her hands over her face. "Donna couldn't make it, so Jody sent Sam along to help us with your vision. You didn't let him in?"

"I don't know him!" Patience said, throwing her hands out for emphasis.

Alex rolled off her mattress and ran absent fingers through her hair.

 _Knock knock knock._

"Okay, okay!" she called as she plodded over to the door and swung it open. "Hi, Sam."

"Hey, Alex." He smiled and nodded past her towards where Patience was hanging back. "Hi Patience." He had a nice smile but there were dark circles under his eyes. Patience suddenly wondered if he'd slept at all.

"Dude, it is way too early for this," Alex groaned.

"You feeling okay?"

Patience couldn't see it from where she was standing, but judging by the amused look on Sam's face Alex's glare must have been venomous. "You guys want to get some breakfast? Talk over your case? I hear something extra greasy is great for hangovers."

Patience felt her stomach turn a bit as Alex replied. "You're horrible."

"I'm buying," Sam offered as an olive branch.

Alex sighed. "Sure, just give us…" She glanced back at Patience.

"Take your time," Sam said. "I'll be in the lobby."

* * *

They made it down forty-five minutes later and piled into Sam's car.

"So where are we going? IHOP?" Alex asked.

Sam shook his head and turned them onto a busy road. "Nah. My family used to pass through Madison all the time. Still do on occasion. I know a couple good places."

Mickie's Dairy Bar was a diner that looked like it was dropped straight out of the 1950s, not so much 'retro' as just plain old. Across the street loomed the massive gray concrete football stadium. There was a short line of people stretching out the door, which sported a sign warning that they only took cash. The inside was decorated in red and white, with an ancient menu on one wall advertising food with prices all under a dollar and a more up-to-date menu in handwritten placards on the far wall.

"What do you recommend?" Patience asked.

"Dean's favorite is the scrambler," Sam said, before quickly twisting his body around in his seat to look at the menu. "Uhm, I used to like the pancakes, as a kid. They're huge." His voice was weird.

Patience glanced over at Alex, but only got a shrug in response.

Their booth butted up against the central area where the waitstaff bustled back and forth, making milkshakes and taking orders. When one of them stopped by, Sam ordered a vegetable omelet.

Patience just ordered a bagel. She was feeling better than when she first woke up, but she wasn't sure she trusted her stomach just yet.

It was awkward. Patience had only met Sam once before, briefly, when they'd saved him and Dean from that alternate world. She'd interacted marginally more with Dean, when he'd helped save her from that wraith.

She hadn't realized, based on that first meeting, that the brothers were very close. But everything she'd heard since then from Jody and Claire and Alex about the Winchesters suggested they were rarely apart. So Dean's absence was conspicuous, but Patience didn't really know if that was something she could ask about.

Sam seemed to be similarly at a loss for words. Or maybe he was lost in thought. Alex was scrolling through her phone. The silence stretched out between them.

Their food came out quickly. Alex's chocolate chip pancakes were huge, almost bigger than the plate. Bigger than her head. Patience's bagel suddenly looked pathetic and she finished it before Alex was even a fourth of the way through her breakfast. She was suddenly ravenous.

Probably because she'd thrown up her dinner.

Alex seemed to notice and cut a hunk off her pancakes and slid them onto Patience's plate.

Sam watched them tear into their food. "You two should be so much more hungover."

"Benefits of youth, old man," Alex shot back.

Patience focused on her food. She had a lingering headache, but it was already clearing up as she chugged from her tiny red water glass.

"So, tell me about your vision," Sam said as they were finishing up.

Patience fiddled with her napkin as she sketched out the details of the vision in broad strokes, explaining about seeing the girl with the red hair and her murder. Sam took it all in stride, his expression intent.

"Can you tell me anything about the location of the murder?"

"Uh," Patience said. "There was water and some trees?"

"That the best you can do?" Alex asked.

Patience glared at her. "I don't really want to remember it, you know?" she snapped.

"Woah, Patience, that's okay. I understand," Sam said.

The stress and worry just seemed to hit all at once and she couldn't help the acid in her response. "Really? You understand how it feels to see visions of people being murdered?"

Sam rocked back in his seat a bit. "Uh, actually," he said with a grimace. "I do."

"What?" Alex asked.

"I used to have visions. They were also of death. Usually pretty gruesome deaths."

"You're psychic?" Patience asked.

"Not like you are and I don't get them anymore."

"How did you make them stop?" She didn't think there was any way to stop her visions. But if she could, maybe she could have a normal life. Go back home sometimes. Be a college student without having to worry about fitting a hunt in between classes.

Then she caught Sam's expression and even before he spoke realized there was no hope for her there.

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, I wish I could help you."

She shook her head, staring down at her empty plate as she tried to will away the burning behind her eyes. Stupid to get her hopes up. She wasn't going to cry like a baby about it.

"But maybe I can still help," Sam suggested.

"Yeah?" She couldn't help but keep the skepticism out of her voice.

"I've met a lot of psychics, had to deal with my own powers. I can give it a shot." He leaned forward a bit in his seat. His voice was soft, earnest. "These are your visions, Patience. You can control them."

"Don't you think I've tried?"

"Your grandmother could do it," Sam pointed out. "You can too. Now, do something for me, close your eyes."

She exchanged a glance with Alex, who shrugged, decided what the hell. Everyone else talked about the Winchesters like they were experts in everything. Why not this too? She shut her eyes.

"Picture the beginning of your vision, just the girl."

She took a deep breath and brought up the mental image. The girl was standing just inside the tree line, on the leaf-strewn shore. It was peaceful, but Patience knew that any second…

"Now, freeze it. Press pause."

She opened her mouth to tell him that it wouldn't work, but her subconscious must have been listening because the vision had already stopped. The waves in the vision froze into a solid jagged surface. The breeze rustling the trees stilled. "Huh."

"Alright, now look around. Tell me what you see."

She glanced through the unmoving foliage. "Trees?" The light was dim as the sun set. "Uh, there's a fire pit, like a camp site. Some benches."

"Good, that's really good. Anything else? Can you see any buildings?"

"No, it's just woods. But they're not deep. I think it might be an island? It's surrounded by water." She turned towards the gap in the trees past the girl. "There are some buildings in the distance. I can see across to the other side of the lake. I can see the capitol."

"That's good, Patience. Anything else?"

She opened her eyes. "No. But it was definitely across the lake somewhere. That's a start, right?"

Sam smiled. "Definitely. We'll find the location and be there at sunset."

Relief rushed through Patience. "You don't think it's too late?"

"No violent crimes came across the police scanner last night," Sam said. "So there's a good chance."

Patience snuck a glance at her phone as a thought occurred to her. "Do you guys need my help with that?"

Sam looked a little confused, so Alex broke in to explain. "Patience has to register for classes today, it's some whole big thing. That's why we're in Madison."

Sam blinked. "You're going to school here?"

Patience shrugged, hoping to play it off. "Uh, yeah. It's close enough I can come back if Jody needs me, but… uh…"

Against expectations, though, Sam seemed thrilled. "That's amazing, it's a good school. I'm sure it wasn't easy to get in with everything going on this past year."

She gaped, just a little, in shock. She'd figured one of the infamous Winchesters would be more like Claire, wondering why anyone would waste their time on anything that didn't involve shooting or stabbing. Although she supposed it shouldn't have surprised her. Dean told her to get out of hunting, too. It didn't escape her notice that the two biggest names in hunting didn't seem to like it any more than she did.

"You said you went to Stanford?" Alex asked.

Now it was Sam's turn to look uncomfortable. "Yeah. For a couple of years."

There was clearly a story there, but Sam was just as clearly not talking about it. That was fine with Patience. "Can you drop me off for registration?"

* * *

 _Alex_

Alex wasn't exactly best friends with Sam Winchester, but she liked the guy well enough. He seemed nice. A little dorky, maybe. But after an entire afternoon of hanging out with him doing research, she was thrilled to be picking up Patience. They'd retrieved her car from where she'd parked it near the bar overnight and dropped it off at the hotel, so she was once again riding shotgun in Sam's car. She thought it might be a rental. She hoped it was a rental, that it wasn't stolen. She really didn't need anything else on her record.

Sunset was still several hours away, but they'd found the likely murder location, so they had good news for Patience. Well, if you could count that as 'good news'. Sam suggested dinner, but when Patience heard that they might know where her vision went down she insisted they head straight out there, even if they had to wait.

There was a mixed-use trail leading from the parking lot into the woods. The forest eventually narrowed down to a thin strip of land that jutted out nearly a mile into the lake. It was heavily wooded. At the end there were a set of brick and stone benches forming a wide circle around a fire pit. The peninsula was maybe 200 feet across, narrow enough that you could see the lake through the sparse trees on each side.

Sam stood with Patience on the southern shore, looking out towards the downtown, the low skyline of which could be seen across the lake. "Does this match your vision?"

Patience squinted across the sunlight reflected off the lake towards the city. Alex watched as she closed her eyes, probably bringing to mind the image from her vision. "Yeah, that's it."

Alex studied her face. Patience seemed sure, but also weirdly hesitant. Then again, they were here to hopefully stop a murder, which was definitely enough to put anyone off their game.

They had a lot of time, but Patience was clearly anxious, so they decided to just stick around. They grabbed seats around the fire pit. The weather was reasonable, warm and sunny with the shade from the trees and some clouds and the breeze off the lake kept them cool. Sam had a backpack with him—purple camo print—and Alex had seen him load it up with a few guns and other supplies, but she and Patience were unarmed. Their plan was to spot the girl and warn her away, hopefully before her assailant even had a chance to strike. Sam had briefly suggested that maybe Alex and Patience should wait in the car or back at the hotel, but he didn't seem surprised when Alex told him how dumb that sounded. They weren't going to sit this out.

Now that she thought about it, he had probably been trying to give Patience an out if she wanted it.

In any case, all three of them stuck around as the shadows grew longer. The path looping around the outside of the fire pit was busy with joggers and people walking with strollers. There were a couple teenagers sitting on the stone benches across the circle from them, laughing amongst themselves. From where they sat the three hunters could see anyone who'd approach.

As the sun started to dip below the treetops the mosquitoes came out in force. Sam was wearing jeans and long sleeves—how was he not dying in this heat?—but Alex and Patience slapped at their arms and legs to fend them off.

"Here."

Alex looked up from murdering one of the blood suckers to find Sam holding out a small bottle of bug spray.

"Aren't you a boy scout," she said, but happily took it and spritzed it liberally over her exposed skin. "I really hope this girl shows up soon," she said as she handed the bottle over to Patience.

The sky was starting to light up in oranges and reds as the sun dipped lower. Already they were in shade from the long shadows of the trees surrounding them.

Patience glanced over towards where she must have 'seen' the murder take place. "Yeah, maybe it's not tonight?"

"No murders last night," Sam said. "So far this year there have only been three murders in the city, all of them male, none of them nearby."

The stream of people passing through slowed to a trickle. Alex poked around on her phone, just killing time. Patience was trying to do the same, but she was clearly too antsy to focus even on something as inane as Instagram.

"What classes did you sign up for?" Sam asked.

Patience dug into her purse and unfolded a sheet of paper. "Anthropology. An English class. Freshman chem. Calculus."

Sam nodded. "Good mix."

She shoved the paper back into her purse. "Yeah, well, I don't exactly know what I want to major in, so I figured I'd just try a bunch of stuff."

"It's a good strategy."

"What about you?" Patience asked. "What was your major?"

"I was pre-law," Sam said. "Philosophy major. I took a lot of anthropology, though. And religious studies classes. Perks of being raised a hunter—you know a lot about religions and myths."

"So what happened?" Alex asked before she thought better of it.

"My girlfriend died. A demon killed her." Sam replied, very matter-of-factly.

Crap. Alex felt a pit form in her stomach. She knew that asking a hunter about their past was a huge faux pas, but the atmosphere had been so relaxed that the question had just slipped out innocently.

"I'm sorry," Patience said.

"It was a long time ago," Sam said. "And the demon is dead. Both of them, actually."

"But you never got out," Patience pointed out.

"That doesn't have to be you, though," Sam replied. Patience shot him a look and he sighed. "Okay, if you'd asked me ten years ago, yeah, I'd say nobody escaped this life. All the hunters I knew were angry, obsessive old men. But Jody and Donna both hold down real jobs and hunt. And I've met hunters who were in it for decades and got out and they're still out. It's your life, you can do what you want with it. If you want to hunt, we'll all help you. But if you don't, well, I wouldn't blame you."

They lapsed into silence after his speech, for which Alex was personally glad. Living with Jody meant that Alex couldn't entirely escape the hunting life, but she'd done a pretty good job distancing herself from it.

At least, she thought she had, until those ugly monsters started showing up in Sioux Falls a few months back. Back when Henry had turned out to be a vampire, she'd convinced herself that it was a one-off occurrence, but now she was seeing the beginning of a pattern. She hadn't hunted anything since they'd closed the rift, hadn't so much as held a gun, but even though she went to work every day like normal, deep down she thought it was only a matter of time before that life swallowed her whole.

But then here was Sam Winchester, practically a hunting icon, telling her that it didn't have to be that way.

Still, that didn't mean he was right. He could be just as delusional as the rest of them. But it was nice to hear from a hunter other than Jody and Donna anyway that not all of them were as obsessive as Claire.

The three tensed as the sun got lower and the light faded. The teens had left and there were no more joggers. Occasionally there would be a couple slowly walking down the path. There was something romantic about the location. Alex gave her group a once-over and wondered if anyone was getting some really weird ideas about them.

The light faded until they couldn't deny that night had fallen.

"Looks like that's a bust," Alex finally said to break the ice. "What's up with your visions? They've never been wrong before."

"Could have been the wrong day," Sam said as he pulled a flashlight out of his bag. "You're sure this is the location you saw?"

"Yeah," Patience said, but there was definitely something hesitant in her voice.

Sam clearly also heard the hesitation. "Are you sure?"

Patience crossed her arms, rubbing her upper arms for warmth, even though the night air was comfortably warm. "It's the same spot, it's got to be. The skyline looks right. But it looked… different."

"Different how?" Alex asked.

Patience gestured to the stone circle they sat in. "This was all different. It wasn't stone like this."

Sam shone the flashlight beam around their surroundings in the graying light. "Huh. Well, let's pack it in for today."

By the time they got back to the car it was pushing ten at night. The piled into the sedan somewhat disheartened. It wasn't as if Alex had been looking forward to grappling with a murderer or anything, but it was still frustrating to have waited hours for nothing.

Sam maneuvered them onto one of the main roads back into the city. The car was quiet, the only sound the soft murmur of the local radio station.

"You guys hungry?" Sam suddenly asked.

The clock on the dash read 10:07. "Uh, it's a little late?" Alex said.

"I thought I was the old one," Sam teased.

"I could eat," Patience added from the back seat.

"Sounds good." Sam said as he turned the car towards the capitol.

They parked on the street downtown and Sam directed them to an out-of-the-way entrance wedged in between two buildings. If Alex was forced to describe the décor inside, she supposed she'd call it 'cabin chic': wood-paneled walls, fancy glass chandeliers, and votive candles on each table.

They weren't the only people eating, even this late on a weeknight, but they got a table pretty quickly. "Dean loves this place for the late night menu. Cheap steaks after ten PM."

"Where is he, anyway?" Alex asked. The words were already out of her mouth by the time she thought better of them. She wasn't an expert on Winchesters, but even she had some sense of how close the brothers were. It didn't seem normal or good that Sam was suddenly alone and driving a rental.

"Dean's, uh…" Sam was saved from his fumbling by the arrival of their waitress. Sam's body language opened up and he gave her a smile as he ordered a salad.

Alex waited as Patience ordered soup before it was her turn to put in an order for the sirloin steak. Wherever Dean was, she couldn't fault his choice in food.

Sam took a long drink of his water. He sat back and scratched absently through his short beard. "Back when the rift opened up, Jack and… Kaia… were trying to get to an alternate world. They were doing it to try and save my mom. Dean and I eventually got back there and we saved her, and Jack, but we got followed back to our world."

"Like the monsters," Alex said. "The ones that followed Kaia to Sioux Falls."

"Yeah, kinda," Sam said. "Except these were archangels."

"Archangels?" Patience said. "Really?"

"Really," Sam said, no trace of humor in his voice. "And now one of them has Dean."

"'Has' him? What does that mean? Like, kidnapped?"

"More like… possessed." His voice was quiet.

Claire had once told Alex about being possessed by an angel. Claire always talked about hunting like it was the best thing in the world, but she didn't sound that way about Castiel taking over her body. She'd sounded haunted.

"Angels possess people?" Patience asked. "Like demons?"

"Not exactly the same, but yeah."

"Wait," Alex said. "I thought angels couldn't possess someone without their permission." Claire had blamed herself for letting Castiel in. Alex had told her in no uncertain terms that that was bullshit.

Sam paled a little, but he nods. "Yeah."

"Why would Dean do that?" Patience asked.

"To save me," Sam said softly. "Me and Jack." He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and schooling his expression into something hard. "I'm going to get him back. But you guys should be aware. It's unlikely he'd try to find you or anything, but I'll show you some banishing sigils just in case."

"Is that what you were doing? In Chicago?" Patience asked.

Sam nodded. "I was looking for some supplies."

"Does Jody know?" Alex asked. "And Donna?" They hadn't said anything to her.

"I wanted to keep them out of it. Jody's got her hands full in Sioux Falls," Sam said.

"That's bullshit," Alex replied heatedly. "They should know. You can't keep this from them."

"You're right," Sam said, so unexpectedly that it stole all Alex's angry momentum. She'd been working up to a truly awesome rant. The last thing she'd expected was agreement. "I've been so focused on the job, on trying to save him. It's… it's not the first time I've been in a situation like this. But Jody and Donna deserve to know."

Alex wasn't sure how to respond to that, but thankfully their food arrived and saved her from having to try. The steak was delicious. Dean had good taste.

As she ate Alex fit this information into what she'd seen over the past day. Suddenly a lot about Sam's actions made sense. They'd figured out the likely murder location relatively quickly this afternoon and Sam had taken the time to do some other research. When she'd asked he'd just said it was another hunt and she was more than happy to be left out of that. But now she figured it must have been something to do with Dean. She'd eventually grown bored and wandered around the massive city library, but he'd sat on the library's computer for hours, not talking, barely even moving. When Patience had texted her to be picked up she'd gone over to let him know and he'd seemed shocked that so much time had passed. She'd even left to get lunch and he hadn't moved.

She watched him pick through his salad now. He hadn't finished his omelet this morning either.

Alex didn't know the Winchesters very well, certainly not as well as Jody or Claire did. She'd always tried to keep a bit of distance from them and all they represented—the hunting life.

But they had saved her life, multiple times. And she knew that they'd saved Jody's and Claire's plenty. They didn't deserve the horrible shit she'd heard stories about from hunters who passed through Jody's house. They didn't deserve this.

She hoped that Sam got Dean back soon. Because she didn't know how long he could keep this up.

* * *

 _Patience_

Alex dropped her off the next day for the second day of advising and information sessions. Patience already had her schedule, so she didn't need much in the way of advising, but there was a campus tour that would show you what buildings your classes were in. The campus was sprawling and unfamiliar, so Patience thought it might be nice. Until then she was killing time walking through the Sports and Activities fair. It was just a bunch of tables set up in lines in a huge room, all with club presidents or team captains trying to recruit for the College Democrats or ultimate Frisbee team or Sci-Fi Club.

Patience had played plenty of sports back in Atlanta, and she'd gotten on the volleyball team in Sioux Falls for her last semester, liked sports, liked having a team. It was a good way to make friends. And if she was going to do occasional hunts it was also a good way to stay in shape. Of course, it might also take up time on weekends that she'd need to go hunting.

In which case, it'd be a nice excuse.

She talked for a while with a girl from the rowing team. It wasn't a sport her school back in Atlanta had, same with Sioux Falls, but the girl assured her that that wasn't unusual. She got a pamphlet with some information about an open house to learn more in late August after she'd moved into her dorm. Practice for first-year rowers was in the evening.

The campus tour started just after lunch. The day had ended up hot and humid and Patience was glad she'd brought along a water bottle. The sun beat down mercilessly on the twenty-odd future students.

"You'll be wishing for this come January," their tour guide joked and Patience shuddered. She'd only barely survived her first real winter in South Dakota. Snow was horrible.

Their tour guide stopped to tell them the story of some of the buildings as the group huddled in the relative comfort of the shade of an old tree across the street. Patience found her attention wandering and she glanced around.

And that's when she saw her.

The girl.

Her red hair stood out like a beacon. She stood on the sidewalk across the street and she was staring straight at Patience.

Patience wasted a few moments gaping before she surged forward, towards the crosswalk. But before she could reach it the light changed and cars swept through the intersection. Patience could see the girl as she turned away, but then a bus rumbled down the bus lane and broke her line of sight. It squealed to a stop to let people on and off. When it moved again the girl wasn't there anymore. From the curb Patience scanned the sidewalk but couldn't see her. Had she gotten on the bus? Or maybe gone into one of the buildings on the street?

Patience was torn between chasing after her, which probably wouldn't help, and staying with the tour group.

She was interrupted by the buzzing of her cell phone. It was a text from Alex.

 _We think we found her. You done yet?_

Patience glanced back up and took a second look for the girl. Nothing. She tapped out a quick text back.

 _Tour is almost done. I saw her on the street, but I lost her. Where are you guys?_

The tour walked on and she trailed behind it as she waited for a response. It took a few minutes, but eventually her phone buzzed.

 _Finish your tour, no rush. We're at the public library on Mifflin St downtown. You need a ride?_

'No rush'? Yeah, sure, easy for Alex to say, she wasn't the one with the murder visions.

 _I can walk. See you later._

She couldn't focus on what the guide was saying as she looked over her future fellow students. They were the same age as her, but they were just kids. They didn't know anything.

How was she supposed to be like one of them? Did she really think she could just go home on weekends, behead a vampire, and be back in time for her 9 am Monday class? If she had a vision, could she really just call home, give them the details, and go back to studying for an exam?

But at the same time, what was the other choice? Quit school and hunt full time? Get a job to pay the bills in between driving across the continental U.S.? Or be like Claire and live on the road, driving from vision to vision and hunt to hunt? Use fake credit cards? That wasn't a life, not to her. Just thinking about it made her stomach turn. She couldn't live like that.

But all the same, how could she live with herself if people died while she was here playing at normalcy?

The tour had hit half her classes and she figured she could Google the rest of them when she started school in fall.

She pulled up the public library's location on her phone. When the tour group turned right she kept on going straight, headed downtown. It wasn't a very long walk, but the sun and humidity were brutal. Not for the first time this summer she lamented losing her Atlanta conditioning. If she'd never moved to Sioux Falls this would seem like nothing. Back home summer was sometimes four solid months of brutally hot and muggy days. She used to put a jacket on the first day it dipped below 80. But she'd never had to deal with temperatures below zero in winter, either, and something about adjusting to the vicious Sioux Falls winter had stripped her of her warm weather acclimation. She used to go on runs in weather hotter than this and she laughed at the tourists who would complain about the summer Georgia heat; now she was just like them.

At least the nice thing about Madison was that there was usually a breeze off the lakes. Sometimes in Atlanta the air would just sit, heavy and stifling and miserable.

The library, when she reached it, looked new, all steel and glass and modern art. She wandered a bit through the first floor before she found Alex and Sam on the second. They had a room to themselves that looked like a glass-walled cage.

"Hey guys," Patience said as she pushed open the door. "They finally lock you up?"

"Patience, hey," Sam said from over the top of his laptop. "Figured the room would help to keep from being overheard talking about ghosts and demons. How was your tour?"

"Alex said you found something," Patience said as she threw her purse on the table. She wasn't in the mood for small talk.

Sam exchanged a glance with Alex before turning his laptop around.

The picture was black and white and grainy, maybe an old scanned-in yearbook photo? But the face was entirely familiar. Patience nodded. "Yeah, that's her."

Sam flipped his laptop back around. "Teresa Schneider. From McFarland, Wisconsin, a couple miles south of here."

"You have her name, that's great," Patience said. "We can look up her family. Or check enrollment. I was thinking she looked like she's about my age, so maybe she's a student here."

"She was a freshman," Sam agreed.

Something in the way he said it made Patience pause. "Was?"

They exchanged another glance and Alex spoke up. "You mentioned that the spot didn't look the same as in your vision. I found an article that said it was remodeled a few years ago. So we started looking at newspapers."

Sam flipped his laptop back around. Teresa's picture was still there, but smaller. The graininess finally made sense, as it was embedded in a news article. Above it was a headline:

' _Still no leads to disappearance of UW student'_

The digitized page looked old, low resolution.

"When is the article from?" Patience asked.

"This one is from December 1978," Sam replied. "She went missing that September."

"So she's dead," Patience said, mostly to herself. Her head was spinning.

"Probably." Sam said. "My best guess is that she died like you saw in your vision. It's a cold case. They never found any leads."

Patience couldn't help the tears. "She's dead. She died… _years_ ago."

"I'm sorry," Sam said softly.

Anger and frustration surged in her, overtaking the sorrow. "Why would I get visions of something that happened forty years ago? How does that make any sense?"

"I have a theory."

Sam was obviously trying to be considerate, but just then it grated on her. "Great," she drawled. "A theory."

Sam didn't seem to take any offense. "Being a psychic means you're more in tune with the supernatural. We think you saw Teresa's ghost, that she was drawn to you, and that she sent you the vision."

"But why?" Patience asked. "I can't help her."

"That's how vengeful spirits are born," Sam explained. "Some are just mean. But others, like Teresa, have unfinished business."

"And how am I supposed to help that? I can't even see who killed her!"

"Teresa's body was never found," Sam said. "Her family never got to know what happened to her. Not all ghosts want justice or revenge."

She suddenly imagined this girl's parents. Their daughter had gone to college and then just vanished. Maybe she had siblings. Friends. None of them ever found out what happened to her. Maybe they were still waiting for her to come home someday.

"This sucks," Patience said. "So what do we do now?"

"We can summon her ghost," Sam said. "And hopefully we can talk to her."

Her life sucked.

* * *

Nightfall found them, once again, out at Picnic Point. The plan was to wait until after the park closed at 10 to do the ritual. To avoid suspicion they parked in a distant parking lot and hiked over with their supplies in Sam's backpack. It was still warm and muggy that night, though somewhat more manageable without the sun's harsh radiation.

Sam gave Alex a sawed-off shotgun, explaining about the rock salt shells. He apologized that he didn't have one for Patience, though she was more than happy to take the crowbar he offered instead. Apparently ghosts hated iron. She'd fired a gun during the whole monsters-from-another-dimension thing, but she wasn't great with them.

They lucked out and the fire circle at the end of the peninsula was empty. Patience had half expected to stumble across some drunk teens or something, but the land was still and quiet. The only sound was the waves lapping gently at the shore.

Sam directed them to watch out for any people coming down the path as he zipped open his backpack and began unpacking. Patience had a hard time keeping her attention away from the spell set up. Even with months of being a psychic and living with a hunter, she was still a little baffled at the existence of actual magic.

It didn't look particularly impressive. Sam chalked a pattern onto the stone and set a brass bowl in its center. The ingredients looked mostly like the dried plants she used to find hanging in her grandmother's house. Which, come to think of it, probably made sense.

"Ready," Sam said, drawing their attention fully back to him.

"This is safe?" Patience asked.

He glanced up at her. "Teresa's ghost hasn't been aggressive so far." He glanced down at the spell ingredients. "Of course, that was with you…"

There was something contemplative in his voice that made Patience immediately wary.

"I think you should do the spell," Sam said.

"I don't know how to do magic," she replied, entirely reasonably. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she believed in magic yet.

Sam just smiled. "Fortunately, spells like this don't take much natural affinity. How's your Latin?"

"I took French."

"Close enough," Sam said. "It's more about intention anyway. Dean's Latin is horrible, but he manages." He handed over a sheet of lined notebook paper with a few incomprehensible lines written on them. Patience scanned her flashlight over the contents. He had some notes about spell ingredients at the top in a rushed, messy scrawl, but the actual incantation was meticulously neat.

"Say those words, then light the match and drop it into the bowl."

Patience traded a glance with Alex, who shrugged and hefted her shotgun up to her shoulder.

Patience took a deep breath and slowly, haltingly started the incantation.

" _Contra obsecro hoc spiritum justa ad facientem voluntatum mayhem."_

She fumbled a bit trying to hold onto the paper and her flashlight as she switched her grip to the matches and lit them. They flared up bright in the darkness before she dropped them carefully into the bowl—

—and immediately had to back away as the contents of the bowl flared up with bright blue flames.

"Jesus!" Patience yelped, backing away. She glanced back at Alex, who gave her the same incredulous look, before her gaze shifted to just over Patience's shoulder and her face morphed into one of shock.

Patience whipped around and there she was.

Teresa was noticeably translucent this time. Patience could see the moon's light reflecting off the waves behind her. In the dim light of their flashlights she looked inhumanly pale, but her red hair was still bright where it lay straight across her shoulders.

"Teresa Schneider?" Patience whispered.

Teresa nodded.

Patience glanced over towards Sam. He had his shotgun up and ready, but didn't seem particularly worried. He gave her an encouraging nod.

Patience turned back to the ghost. "You sent me those visions. Of your…" she trailed off. Was it inconsiderate to mention a ghost's death to their face?

Teresa nodded again, but this time she smiled, as if she understood the awkward nature of their conversation.

It was that oh-so human expression that got to Patience and suddenly she felt tears bubbling up in her throat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that it happened to you."

Teresa's smile faded a bit, but she still didn't speak. Maybe she couldn't.

Patience plowed forward. "Your vision, I can't see who did it. I can't see who killed you."

She could hear and feel Alex and Sam tense up at her words, bringing their weapons up to bear. But Teresa didn't fly into some supernatural rage. She only nodded, slowly.

Instead the anger boiled up in Patience. Frustration at her powers being useless to do this one, stupid thing. "I'm so sorry that I can't get you justice. You… you deserve that. I wish I could find whoever did it." Teresa only stared on, silently. Patience drew in a deep breath, let it out. "But I'm going to tell your family. I'll tell them what happened to you. They won't have to wonder anymore." Her cheeks were wet with tears.

Teresa continued to stare for a long moment before her mouth curled up in a small smile. Her figure grew brighter, and at first Patience thought it was just her eyes adjusting to the dark, but then the light seemed to encompass her until she dissolved into it. Patience looked around, blinking against the afterimage, but Teresa was gone.

There were footsteps and a hand came down on her shoulder. "She moved on," Sam said.

Patience wiped at her face with the heels of her hands. Alex came up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Patience leaned into it. "You did great."

* * *

 _Alex_

They crashed one more night in the hotel, since they had it booked anyway. The next morning Sam took them out to breakfast again. The joint was something Alex wouldn't have expected from the Winchesters, all organic and with plenty of vegan options.

"Dean hates this place," he explained as they looked over the menus while waiting in line to order. His voice was steady, but his hands shook a bit.

They kept the conversation on lighter topics. Sam asked Patience about what dorm she wanted to live in and she asked his opinion on whether proximity to classes was more important than room size and amenities.

They were nearing the end of their meal. Alex was enjoying her French toast much more than Sam could possibly be enjoying his _tofu_ scrambler. Seriously, something was wrong with that guy.

The conversation hit a lull. Sam broke the silence. "Have you talked with your dad?" His tone was cautious and understanding, but Alex shot him a glare anyway. After the shit night they just had, why would Sam bring that up?

Patience stirred at her food a bit with a fork. "He's been texting me, a bit. I haven't told him that I'm going here."

"Why not?"

Patience heaved a sigh. "Before I left home I was a straight-A student. We were looking at Ivy League schools."

"You think he'd be ashamed?"

"He told me not to leave," Patience said. "Told me that I wouldn't come back from choosing the hunting life. I just… I don't want him to be right. Because I don't regret going to help, you know? But he kind of was. Right, I mean."

"He wasn't right to say that," Sam said. "And this is a really good school. I'm sure he'd be proud of you."

"You don't know my dad. He had high expectations for me, always has. And how do you even know it's a good school?"

It was Sam's turn to look uncomfortable. "I knew someone who went here."

"Who?" Alex asked. She didn't know many hunters who went to college.

"His name was Adam," Sam said. "He was my half-brother, me and Dean's."

Now that was news. "A half-brother?"

"It's a long story. But he was going here when we learned about him. So I checked it out a bit. Research, you know." He sounded a little rueful. Alex wondered what had happened to him, but she knew better than to ask. Judging by the little she knew of the Winchesters it was probably something horrible. "When I went away to college, my dad said something similar to me, you know."

"But you went to Stanford," Patience argued.

Sam laughed like she'd told a joke. "Yeah, I don't think that mattered to my dad. He didn't want me to leave the hunting life. Same with Dean. But I realized a long time ago that half the reason my dad was so against it was because he was scared for me. He just didn't know how to say that."

Alex decided to tactfully avoid mentioning that he clearly came back to the hunting life.

She didn't really want to go into that. Jody interacted with hunters all the time, they often stopped through the house. Very few of them had "real" lives outside hunting. Jody and Donna were great role models, but Alex was by now well aware that they were outliers in the hunting community. Alex loved Claire like a sister, but she didn't particularly want to end up like her.

"Do you ever still want to get out?" Patience asked.

Sam looked a little surprised by the question. "Uh, no. Not really, I guess. Not for a long time."

"Why not?"

He looked down at his food, which was mostly uneaten, before setting his fork down. "For a long time, I thought I might. But there was always something to deal with. But now… I guess I've accepted that this is my life. I can help people this way." He attempted a smile. "Dean never really got that. He loves hunting."

Alex glanced over at Patience, who seemed to take Sam's words to heart. Alex had noticed her texting a lot lately, but she didn't think it had been to Jody. She supposed Patience had been talking with her dad.

Jealousy struck like a knife below her ribs and she focused on her nearly empty plate of food.

Sam shared with them the address he'd found for Teresa Schneider's family. They lived in Mount Horeb, which was about a half hour out from the city. They piled in their respective cars. Alex cringed as she offered up her credit card to pay for parking, again. She hoped Jody agreed to pay her back, or she'd be picking up extra shifts at the hospital.

The highway out of town cut through gently rolling hills. Fields of corn dotted with red-sided barns and interspersed with patches of squat Midwestern trees.

As Alex's phone counted down the minutes until they arrived Patience squirmed in the passenger seat. "What am I even going to say to them?"

Alex didn't have an answer for that.

"Hi, I'm psychic and I saw your daughter's ghost and just wanted you to know that she's dead," Patience snarked. "They're going to call the cops on me."

"Pretty sure Sam could take them," Alex pointed out. Winchesters were scary.

"And that's another thing," Patience said. "He's really not like I thought he'd be. I mean, I knew Dean from the whole wraith thing back home. But Sam's kind of different, right?"

Alex shrugged. She'd always seen the Winchesters as a bit of a single entity. That's kind of how Jody and Claire talked about them. And in previous encounters Alex had noticed Dean more. He was louder, for sure.

She hadn't given much thought to Sam. But the Sam from these past few days wasn't like she expected. She hadn't known that he'd tried to get out of the hunting life. She always just assumed that the brothers would be like Claire and crave hunting. To find out that one of the infamous duo had had his own reservations was quite the revelation.

And then there was his obvious grief at what had happened to his brother. Alex understood grief. She even understood messy relationships with family.

Mount Horeb wasn't much a town, and even less of a 'mount'. Alex has no idea how it garnered that name, given that it was just as flat as the rest of the surroundings.

The house they pulled up to was a tiny ranch just outside the main drag. It was pale yellow and well-kept, but old in a way that wasn't fashionable enough to be antique.

They parked bumper to bumper at the curb. Sam unfolded himself from his car and waited for them.

"We can come up, if you want," Sam offered.

Patience shook her head, squared her shoulders. "I should do this."

So Alex and Sam hung back as she walked up to the door. It made Alex jumpy. She kept looking around, feeling like she was being watched.

From where they stood they could see Patience approach the door and ring the doorbell. The woman who answered was elderly. She only came up to Patience's shoulder, but her rounded face was friendly. If Sam's research was correct, that was Teresa Schneider's mother, Joyce. Alex couldn't see Patience's face from where she stood, but she watched as Joyce's face grew more shocked. It was hard to make out at this distance, but when she reached up to wipe her eyes it was clear that she'd started crying.

Alex shivered and looked away.

On the house's front stoop Joyce had broken down into tears and pulled Patience into a hug that the psychic clearly didn't know what to do with. Eventually her arms came up to loosely circle Joyce's shoulders.

"You okay?" Sam asked.

"She waited forty years to hear anything about her daughter and now gets to find out that she's dead," Alex bit out.

"Not knowing can be worse," Sam said.

It was something that people said in movies. They talked about closure. Alex hadn't really ever understood that. What's worse than someone being dead? Reality could be so much worse than peoples' imaginations.

But it was hard to deny the relief clearly breaking over Joyce Schneider's face as she looked up at the girl delivering bad news. She stepped back and opened up the screen door, gesturing inside. Patience glanced back and gave them a watery grin before stepping into the house.

"I'm sorry, Alex," Sam said. "I didn't think…"

"Why are you sorry? Because my grandma never knew?" Alex asked, trying for lofty. She almost made it. "I'm glad she didn't. I'm glad she never found out what happened."

Alex's grandmother had seemed just the right height to her at eight years old, but she thought now that she must have been petite. She had been thin, but strong enough to pick Alex up. She used to braid Alex's hair in a French braid, pulling the sides in snug but not too tight.

"I think she would have liked to know," Sam said carefully.

"What, that her granddaughter helped kill people? Yeah, she would have loved that."

Her grandmother had been Catholic, that Alex remembered. Remembered sitting in church with her on Sunday mornings. She'd given her a rosary, tried to teach her all of the prayers. Alex could do the Our Father and Hail Mary, but the long one at the beginning was a little too much for her. She'd been going to Sunday School when Celia had taken her. She'd never gotten to do First Communion.

It was funny. She knew now that angels were real, but she never wanted to go back to church again.

Would they even accept her if she did? How'd they like to hear that she once drank _actual_ blood?

"She would have wanted to know, Alex." Sam continued with determination. She wanted him to stop, but couldn't make the words come out. "It wouldn't be like that. You're alive and you're a good person. She would have been happy."

"A good person?" she whispered, skeptical.

Sam wasn't swayed. "Even good people can do bad things. You are better than what those vampires did to you."

She slammed her eyes shut against the tears. Fuck Sam for this, for bringing this up. She'd been doing fine, damn it.

"It's not just Joyce Schneider that needed closure," Sam pointed out. "Teresa did, too."

"I know she's dead," Alex snapped.

"Have you ever visited her grave?"

His words hit like a punch. Her grandmother's grave. Because she was dead.

"I looked it up," he said. "It's in Kenosha, only a couple of hours away."

"Shut up," she was finally able to grind out. "Just shut up."

To Sam's credit, he did. Alex glared at him and walked away back to her car. The inside was already overheated from the sun, so she started it up and ran the A/C.

Her grandmother couldn't cook worth a damn. She once tried to make a hot dog for Alex using the microwave and ended up nuking it for over three minutes. It turned into a hunk of rubber.

She sold art on weekends, in her spare time. She used to make these little customized cartoon drawings that she'd sell at art fairs of people and their professions. Little cartoon teacher with a little cartoon desk and books and apple. She'd bring Alex—Annie—along with her to the fairs and let her sit on the floor of the booth and color with crayons.

She taught her letters by copying down a big capital letter and then transforming it into a picture. The A became an arrow. The B was a book. The C was a cat.

She hadn't thought of her grandmother at all after Celia took her. She'd just walled it off. The time period before she'd been taken had just been a black hole. It was the only way to survive.

But after Jody had saved her, it started coming back. She'd resisted. There was nothing back there for her, why dwell on it?

The door opened and Alex started in surprise. It was Patience. Her eyes were red, but she looked happy.

"You ready to go?"

Alex turned to glance out the window. Sam was hovering next to his car. It made her regret that Jody had ever taught her manners.

She climbed back out of the car.

"You two have a safe drive back," Sam said. "And if I don't see you, have a good time at school, Patience. I know it wasn't the most fun hunt. But call me if you need any help with your visions. I never got very good at mine, but I can try."

"Thank you," Patience said with so much sincerity that it made Alex's teeth hurt. "Really. Yeah, it sucked, but at least we figured it out."

"I hope you find Dean soon," Alex added.

Sam nodded, a quick little jerk of his head as his lips pressed together into a thin line.

They each gave Sam a hug goodbye. He was surprisingly skinny. They each turned back to their respective cars, but Patience stopped suddenly.

"Hey, Sam?"

Sam turned back.

"Way back, you know, with the wraith?"

Sam nodded, though he clearly had no idea where she was going with this.

"Dean told me back then that hunting sucked. He said I should stay out, if I could be normal."

Sam seemed a bit surprised at that. Alex was more than a little surprised herself.

Patience shrugged. "I'm just saying… maybe, when you get him back, maybe you guys could take a vacation or something. Find some normal for yourselves. Maybe he didn't understand back when you went to college, but I think he might get it now."

Sam looked absolutely floored. He swallowed. "Uh. Thanks."

After they'd all finally climbed into their cars Alex watched as Sam pulled out and drove away.

"Do you mind if we take a little detour?"

* * *

 _Patience_

Their trip east across the state took a few hours, still winding through farmlands. For a state so famous for cheese, she didn't see all that many cows. She could recognize fields of corn and thought the shorter crops might be some kind of bean. Her only exposure to plants had been helping her grandmother with her herb garden. The biggest thing in her backyard had been a lone tomato plant.

The cemetery was small and neat. Patience had texted Sam for the grave plot and they'd wandered around a bit trying to figure out how to find it. It was a deep red stone, set into the ground.

 _Antonette Jones_

 _1926 - 2012_

Patience hung back for a few minutes as Alex knelt to place the bouquet they'd picked up from a gas station in front of the plaque.

She hated cemeteries, which unfailingly reminded her of her mother's death and the horrible divide that opened up in her family immediately after. She hadn't understood as a little kid why she suddenly couldn't see her grandmother.

When Alex stood again Patience moved in next to her. "What was she like?"

"Italian," Alex said with a grin. "Catholic as hell. Nice, to me, but I remember her calling the ladies at church 'fat whores' behind their backs."

It surprised a laugh out of Patience. "My grandma was kind of like that, too. She'd tell me about her clients. Probably more than my mom and dad wanted me to know."

"She lost so much," Alex said. "I never met my grandfather, he died when my mom was just a kid. Then she lost my mom. She must have thought I died, too."

What could Patience say to that?

So instead she went with deflection. "Hey, are we near the lake?"

"You mean Lake Michigan?"

"Yeah."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, a couple blocks, I think."

Patience nudged her shoulder. "C'mon. I've never seen a Great Lake. Let's go."

Back in the car Patience checked her phone and there ended up being a park nearby, so they headed there.

Her family had gone down to Savannah a few times when she was a kid and she'd seen the Atlantic Ocean then. Her dad had taken her along on a business trip to LA once and so a couple years ago she'd seen the Pacific.

Lake Michigan looked a lot like that, completely unlike any lake she'd ever seen before. She'd known that it was big, of course.

"You can't even see the other side!" she exclaimed.

Alex laughed at her. "Duh."

There was a beach. Neither of them had brought swimming suits along, but they took off their sandals and waded in. The water was shockingly cold.

Afterwards they sat at the top of the beach and watched the families. Some older kids were building elaborate sand castles.

"What's that?" Alex asked.

Patience followed her gaze to the business card in her hand. She'd pulled it out of her pocket when she sat down because it dug into her hip weird, but hadn't really noticed that she was playing with it. "Sam gave it to me." She handed the card over.

"Mia Vallens," Alex read. "Sam gave you a card for a _therapist_?"

"Apparently she lives in Madison. Sam thought maybe I could use someone local to talk to about all this stuff."

"She knows about hunting?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Patience confirmed. "And get this: she's a shapeshifter."

"Well," Alex said. "That's… certainly something."

Patience laughed.

"How does Sam even know a shapeshifter shrink?"

"Say that five times fast," Patience joked. "And I have no idea. Not really sure I want to, you know?"

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a bit. Patience played around with the card.

She could see the appeal. She didn't have anything against therapy. Her dad had sent her to talk to someone after her mom died and it had helped a lot.

She had enough to talk about, considering the past year. Her grandmother's death, her psychic abilities. The fight with her dad and moving halfway across the country to Sioux Falls. Fighting off monsters.

Kaia's death.

And maybe she would. But she realized that despite everything, she was handling it pretty well. She knew she had Jody to thank for a lot of that. The sheriff had taken her in, supported her, provided a sounding board for her choices without pressuring her at all. She'd needed to figure it out for herself and she couldn't with her dad treating her like a kid.

But now she was also thinking that it was more than just Jody. Donna visited a few times and Patience loved the brash, funny woman. Claire had taken up hunting again, but while she'd been staying in Sioux Falls she'd gotten over whatever low-burning animosity she'd felt for Patience and they were almost friends.

And then, of course, there was Alex. She kept weird hours because of her nursing and classes, but she'd welcomed Patience in pretty quickly, even though it had been with her particular brand of sarcasm.

It suddenly seemed important that Alex understood what that had meant to her. "Hey, thanks for coming with me," Patience said, before she could chicken out.

"I only did it because Jody was paying me," Alex drawled.

Patience laughed, which made Alex crack up herself.

Going to college was going to be a new adventure. And after what she'd been through these past few days she thought she might finally be ready to tell her dad about it, see if they could fix things between them. But it helped to know that if any of that didn't work out, she still had somewhere to come home to.


End file.
